Chapter Twenty-Two
Roosevelt: The Big Stick
• Americans believed that they had a God-given role to promote a moral world order.
• Theodore Roosevelt’s “big stick” approach called for intervention.
– He secured a zone in Panama for a canal, completed in 1914. – He expanded the Monroe Doctrine to justify armed intervention
in the Caribbean where the United States assumed management of several nations’ finances.
• In Asia, the United States pursued the “Open Door” policy. TR mediated a settlement of the
Taft: Dollar Diplomacy
• Roosevelt’s successor,
William Howard Taft, favored
“dollar diplomacy" that substituted investment for military intervention. Taft believed that political influence would follow increased U.S.
trade and investments.
American investment in Central America doubled. • Military interventions occurred in Honduras and
Nicaragua.
• In Asia, the quest for greater trade led to worsening relations with Japan over the issue ownership of
Wilson:
Moralism and Realism in Mexico
• Woodrow Wilson had no diplomatic experience before
becoming president. He favored expanding the Open Door principle of equal access to markets.
• He saw expansion of American capitalism in moral terms. – The complex realities of power politics interfered with his
moral vision.
• Unable to control the revolution in Mexico, Wilson sent troops to Vera Cruz and northern Mexico.
Part Four:
The Guns of August
• Competition between Britain and Germany had led to competing camps of alliances.
– The Triple Alliance (Central Powers): Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary
– The Triple Entente (Allied Powers): England, France, and Russia
• The assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife of Austria by a Serbian nationalist in 1914
escalated into a general war.
– Germany had pushed Austria to retaliate against Serbia. – Serbia was under the protection of Russia.
American Neutrality
• Wilson and most Americans wanted to stay
neutral.
• Many Americans had Old World ties.
• The English and Germans bombarded Americans
with propaganda.
• Economic ties hurt American neutrality.
– Wilson opposed the British blockade of Germany but did not trade with the Germans.
The War starts
• The first month would be the single most important period of the conflict.
• The Guns of August – Aug 1, 1914 Germany began Schlieffen Plan
– Germany moves in to invade France
– Germany takes Luxembourg - 2 days later they take Belgium
• Great Britain had no interest in Serbia, nor did they want to fight for Russia or France but they were diplomatically tied.
• Sept 5th 1914 Russia France and great Britain sign the
“You will be home before the leaves have fallen
from the trees” Kaiser Wilhelm
• People believed that modern technology would make war short, quick and cheap.
• Difficult war because there was no real “hatred” of the enemy.
• Introduction of the Zeppelin – cigar-shaped craft. 420 ft. long, 38 ft. diameter, powered by 2 16 horsepower engines filled with Hydrogen. Top speed 20 mph. Used to drop bombs on the Citadel and the City of Liege
• New weapon called “Big Bertha” was introduced – 420 mm howitzer. Would explode after penetration
Preparedness and Peace
• Germany declared the waters around Britain to be a
war zone and began submarine attacks.
• In May 1915 Germans sank the
Lusitania,
a British
passenger ship secretly loaded with armaments, killing
1,198 people including 128 Americans.
• In March 1916, Germany changed its submarine
policy, but Wilson pushed for greater war preparation.
– Opponents mobilized on the streets and in Congress.
Safe for Democracy
• Germans resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in
February 1917 gambling that they could destroy the Allies before America intervened.
– Wilson broke diplomatic relations with Germany.
• The White House publicized a note from the German foreign secretary to Mexico which proposed an alliance with Mexico if the United States entered the war.
• The Zimmerman note provoked an outpouring of anti-German feeling.
– Wilson issued an executive order authorizing the arming of merchant ships and allowing them to shoot at submarines. – In one month German U-boats sank seven merchant ships.
Preparing for war
• The US army consisted of 127,588 men with an
additional 80,446 in the National Guard (by the end of the war we had 3.685,458)
• US manufactuers were already making weapons and explosives
• Wilson created the War Industries Board – that would decide what weapons and supply items were need
• Congress agreed to set up the draft – all males age 21-30 were drafted.
• American soldiers were called “Doughboys” (because
Selling the War
• Uncertain about public backing for the war, Wilson
appointed George Creel to head the Committee on Public Information that tried to promote public support.
• Creel enlisted over 150,000 people to promote the cause. • The CPI:
– published literature
– sponsored huge rallies featuring movie stars
– portrayed America as a unified moral community engaged in a crusade for peace and freedom
“You’re in the Army Now”
• Recruiting a large army required a draft that met
with only scattered organized resistance.
• On the first day, nearly 10 million men registered
for the draft.
– By the end of the war 24 million had registered, 2.8 had been called to serve, and 2 million had volunteered.
• Recruits took a range of psychological and
intelligence tests.
Racism in the Military
• But black troops were organized into
separate units and subjected to white
harassment.
• Most had noncombat jobs, but those
Fading Opposition to War
• Many progressives and intellectuals identified with
Wilson’s definition of the war as a defense of democracy.
• Women’s suffrage leaders who had initially opposed war preparedness threw themselves behind the war effort.
– The war effort gave women a leading role in their communities selling war bonds, coordinating food
conservation drives, and working for hospitals and the Red Cross.
– Many hoped that supporting the war effort would help the suffrage cause.
Americans in Battle
• Initially, American support for the war effort concentrated on protecting shipping.
• The massive influx of American troops and supplies hastened the end of the war. In 1918, fresh American troops shored up defensive lines to stop a German advance that came within fifty miles of Paris. • Americans joined the counter-offensive that followed and helped
force the Germans into signing an armistice.
European casualties
• 9 million Russian soldiers died
• More than 6 million German soldiers
• 5 million soldiers from France
Women at Work
• The war allowed women to shift from low paid domestic service to higher-paying industrial jobs.
• The Women in Industry Service advised industry on the use of women workers and won improved conditions.
• Women earned much less than their male counterparts.
Woman Suffrage
• The war also brought a successful conclusion to the
women’s suffrage campaign.
– Prior to WWI, women in several western states had won the vote.
– Most suffragists had opposed entry into the war.
• Carrie Chapman Catt, a key leader, convinced her
organization to back the war effort.
• Militants like Alice Paul pursued a strategy of
agitation.
Prohibition
• During the war, the temperance movement
benefited from:
– anti-German feeling that worked against breweries with German names
– the need to conserve grain
– moral fervor associated with the entry into the war
The Espionage and Sedition Acts
• WWI intensified social tensions in American life, leading to oppression of dissent. The Espionage Act of June 1917:
– set severe penalties for anyone found guilty of aiding the enemy. – excluded from the mail periodicals the postmaster considered
treasonous.
• The Military Intelligence police force grew and a civilian Bureau of Intelligence (precursor to the FBI) was established.
• The Sedition Act widened the government’s power to crush antiwar opposition.
The Great Migration
• Economic opportunity triggered a mass African- American migration out of the South and into northern cities.
• Racial violence in the South had contributed to the Great Migration.
– The NAACP held a national conference on lynching in 1919 pledging to defend persecuted African Americans, publicize the horrors of the lynch law, and seek
legislation against it.
• In the North, white outrage at the African-American influx exploded in a series of riots.
The Fourteen Points
• Delegates from twenty-seven countries met in Versailles to work out a peace settlement.
• The leaders of Britain, France, Italy, and the United States dominated the conference.
• Wilson offered his vision for peace in a series of Fourteen Points.
Wilson in Paris
• His ideal of self-determination found limited expression when independent states were carved out of the homelands of the beaten Central Powers.
• The victorious Allies seized control of the former German colonies.
• Germany was forced to take full responsibility for starting the war and to accept a reparations bill of $33 billion.
• Wilson was unhappy with many of the compromises in the final treaty but was pleased by the commitment to the League of
The Treaty Fight
• The League did not enjoy wide support at home, however.
• Wilson went on a grueling speaking tour to drum up support for the League. He collapsed and had a stroke.
• Wilson opposed any compromise and the treaty did not
The Russian Revolution
• The Bolshevik victory in 1917 changed the climate of foreign and domestic affairs.
• Wilson sympathized with the overthrow of the czar. • In August 1918, Wilson sent American troops into
northern and eastern Russia, purportedly to protect railroad connections.
– Some troops actually participated in the Russian civil war against the Bolsheviks.
The Red Scare
• In the United States, the charge of Bolshevism became a weapon against dissent.
• A growing fear of foreigners fueled a new round of government repression.
– Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer rounded up 6,000 alleged radicals, despite the absence of any evidence against them.
– Many were deported without evidence.
• Business groups found “red-baiting” to be an effective tool for keeping unions out of factories.
